Flexible Living

The Metal Architecture Design Award judges appreciated the use of stainless steel panels, naming it the winner in the Natural Metals category. “It’s such a beautiful project,” said Brent Schipper, AIA, LEED AP, principal, ASK Studio, Des Moines, Iowa. “I think this is an incredible piece of architecture.” Tara Williams, AIA, associate architect, ASD | SKY, Tampa, Fla., agreed, saying she really likes the composition.

Flexible Spaces

According to Sebastian Schmaling, AIA, LEED AP, principal, Johnsen Schmaling Architects, the goal was to create a home for a young family that would make the most of a tight, urban infill site, while still being flexible enough to facilitate future changes, whether that be changes in family size, lifestyle preferences, financial needs, etc.

The building consists of the main residence, which occupies the upper two floors and sits a street-level plinth that provides flexible space that can be used a rental apartment, leased to a small business or absorbed for additional space by the main residence. Additionally, there is a two-car tandem garage, rooftop terrace, built-in pool, in-unit laundry and a ground-level patio.

Interlocking Forms

The building’s correlative program is expressed in two interlocking forms. “An L-shaped, steel-clad plinth contains the flexible first-floor unit and rises as a service spine alongside the slightly cantilevered, two-story wood box that houses the main residence,” says Schmaling.

The two interlocking forms respond to both program and site constraints. “The metal-clad base and vertical service spine give the building a robust presence along the busy street,” Schmaling explains. “The patinaed metal panels acknowledge the commercial architecture of the buildings to the west, while the wood-clad volume of the primary residence echoes the clapboard siding of the historic homes lining the street to the east.”

A series of slender columns and steel beams extend out from the horizontal facade channel and form a trellised portico at the sidewalk. From there, visitors can either access the main vestibule with stairs leading up to the two upper floors or pass through a perforated metal gate and proceed to a separate entry door into the first-floor flex space.

“The building hugs the property line along the narrow sidewalk, so the portico really functions as a threshold between street and entry—a transitional space that leads visitors to the building’s front door,” Schmaling adds.

Visual Separation

To provide a maximum amount of privacy, as well as visual and acoustic separation from I-Street’s busy traffic, Schmaling explains that the wood-clad volume that hosts the main family residence sits on a steel-clad plinth. “The plinth’s subtly variegated black-oxide stainless steel panels form a visually arresting and durable street-level building skin, its metallic robustness evocative of the neighboring commercial buildings to the west,” he says.

Continuous, white-lacquered steel plates complement the two-story wood box. The steel plates set up a network of thin strands that frame the individual wood walls horizontally, providing vertical datum lines as a static counterpoint to the shifting wall segments. Additionally, a crisp metal trellis provides shade for the linear roof patio on the top level that runs parallel to the main living hall. “The formal precision and exact detailing of the steel plates are in direct contrast to the natural, more unpredictable characteristics of the wood boards they frame, Schmaling explains. “Perhaps more importantly, they establish a consistent datum that accentuates the extraordinary depth of the angled wood wall panels.”

Stainless Steel Cladding

The project features 2,520 square feet of 304 stainless steel from Wiemann Metalcraft, Tulsa, Okla. The 3/32-inch-thick panels were vibration-finished for a highly uniform, multidirectional base texture. To achieve the desired effect, the stainless steel panels receive a hot temperature Fe304 black oxide coating, followed by a hand-applied oil coating that protects the finish and achieves a silken, subtly black-blue appearance. As Schmaling notes, the steel maintains some reflectivity, but the uniform, highly consistent finish reduces it to a beautiful satin appearance.

The black-oxide stainless steel with a vibration finish was selected because it fit the three qualities the architects were looking for in the cladding material for the building base and service spine. “It needed to be extremely durable and maintenance free, relate to the precision and scale of the nearby commercial buildings, and allow for some textural and chromatic variegation,” Schmaling explains.

“The street-level black-oxide stainless steel plinth gives the building an unambiguously confident street presence,” Schmaling adds. “Its variegated finish imbues the building with a rich and tactile appearance at the pedestrian level while simultaneously offering a maintenance-free and abuse-resistant building skin along a busy urban thoroughfare. Equally important, the precisely machined, flush black-oxide panels act as a strong, visually complementary counterbalance to the lightweight expressiveness and natural irregularity of the wood box supported by the steel plinth. Durability and dimensional precision were also crucial in the selection of metal for the upper-level trellis and the horizontal and vertical facade strands that seemingly tie together the oblique wood facade above the plinth.”

To implement the design properly, Schmaling says the building required an extraordinary amount of skill, particularly in the coordination of the different enclosure systems and the transitions between metal and wood. “We were fortunate to work with a general contractor that paid very close attention to details,” he says.